Pine Gap, Australia

[hestefisk]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Gap

[jerrysievert]

there's a tv show of the same name: a fictionalized drama - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7371868/

it appears to be available on netflix in the us

[azylman]

This comes up in a lot of Australian TV, like Pine Gap (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Gap_(TV_series)) and Secret City (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_City_(TV_series))

[selimthegrim]

Falcon and the Snowman is an underrated film peeking into the geopolitics of this in the 70s

[fowl2]

800 is a lot of people. What do they all do, and why do they have to do it from a satellite downlink?

[kdtsh → fowl2]

We have no idea, but their work is apparently a key contributor to ECHELON.

[deogeo]

Interesting. I wonder how many foreign military outposts the US has within its borders.

[celeritascelery → deogeo]

Probably a lot fewer then it has in others.

[joshka]

Why is this news?

[celeritascelery → joshka]

It’s not news. It’s an interesting article. I certainly didn’t know about this.

[A2017U1 → celeritascelery]

It's quite amusing how many Australians don't even know of it's existence, nor of the leeway it buys us in international relations.

Even more obscure is the Harold Holt Naval Communication Station and it's immense value to US Submarines in the Indian ocean. Darkly(Hilariously?) named after an Australian PM who drowned at sea.